Upcoming Classes

May 07

The Cuisine of Oaxaca Mexico

Sold Out

Tuesday, May 7, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Oaxaca is one of the world’s greatest culinary regions with a wide array of landscapes and plenty of coastline, making the food of Oaxaca an encyclopedia into itself. Oaxaca’s major cultural influence is from the Zapotecs, an indigenous culture that grew corn, beans and squash for thousands of years. Oaxaca is probably best known for being “the land of mole,” sauces that are made of toasted nuts, chiles, spices, vegetables occasionally chocolate, which is nothing short of sacred in Oaxaca. Join us in the Salt Water Farm kitchen for an exploration of one of the world’s culinary marvels.  Our lunch menu may include Mezcal with Chile Salt and Oranges, Smokey Chipotle Tortilla Soup, Mole Rojo with Chicken and Homemade Tortillas, Traditional Rice and Beans and Mexican Hot Chocolate. 

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May 09

Posole: A Mexican Classic

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Thursday, May 9, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

As many of you know, I am in love with Mexican cooking. One of my all time favorite dishes is Posole, which can be made in many different ways. The common ingredient across all recipes is hominy, which can be purchased dried or canned. I prefer the dried version, after which you soak the kernels in water and then slowly cook them over the stovetop. There is nothing quite like the smell of hominy simmering for hours . . . it takes me straight back to the Mexican marketplace. And all this is to say nothing of the accoutrements! Posole is party food – adorned with cabbage, radishes, cilantro, avocado, tortilla chips, cotija cheese and more! Join me in making this complex and delicious Mexican classic.

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May 14

Fuchsia Dunlop’s Sichuan Home Cooking

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Tuesday, May 14, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

In this class, we will explore the vibrant dishes of China’s Sichuan Region with the guidance of author Fuchsia Dunlop’s wonderful cookbooks. I’ve spent many winter weeks cooking my way through her books and building a pantry of basic Chinese ingredients, repeating new techniques and better understanding the composition of a home cooked Chinese meal. It’s given me so much joy and a sense of accomplishment to deepen my knowledge of a cuisine that once felt inaccessible. Now my family and friends regularly enjoy a new and different type food weekly. I hope you can join me on this journey! Dishes may include Radishes in Chilli Oil, Smacked Cucumber in Garlicy Sauce, Fish-Fragrant Eggplant, Sichuanese Dry Friend Green Beans, Stir Fried Tofu with Black Bean and Chilli and Sichuanese Wontons in Chilli Oil Sauce.

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May 16

Seafood Cookery

Sold Out

Thursday, May 16, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

In this class, we will discuss the fishing industry along the Maine Coast, the availability of fish varieties native to the area, how to select fish at your local fish store, correct fish handling and shucking methods and various ways to prepare fish at home. Dishes may include raw local oysters with mignonette, buttered toasts with local crab, chive mayonnaise, cucumbers, and tarragon, lobster stew, cast iron halibut steaks with herbed compound butter, radishes, arugula, and peas and lemon curd tart with whipped cream.

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May 21

Wood Fired Pizzas, Antipasto and Bitters

Tuesday, May 21, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

The Italians know better than anyone how to build an appetite. A little something stiff and bitter, a few salty snacks and we’re off to the main event. An aperitivo and an offering of antipasto is intended to build an appetite, not to extinguish it, making room for a primi, secondi, contorni and a little something sweet to finish off the meal. In this class, we will discuss a range of Italian bitters, lay out a beautiful spread of antipasto and then fire up the wood-fired oven for fresh made, thin crust Italian style pizzas. To accompany our meal, we will whip up a crisp bitter green salad and to finish we’ll bake off a flavorful almond brandy cake with a light and tender crumb.

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May 23

Modern Country Cooking

Sold Out

Thursday, May 23, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Modern Country Cooking: It wasn’t until I moved to Maine that I began to truly understand what it means to be a country cook. First, it means growing some, (not necessarily all), of your own food; establishing a deeper connection with the earth and sea that provide us with nutrients. Much of this depends on the seasons and the food that is available. In Maine, much is preserved in the summer and fall to get through the barren months of winter. Second, it means revisiting the basics of food production: making bread, butter, yogurt, stocks, pickles, preserves, pies; cleaning and storing vegetables and herbs from the garden; cleaning mushrooms, filleting fish, butchering poultry; and much more. And then there are what I like to call the country cooking basics: cooking in and caring for cast iron, reaching for a mortar and pestle rather than a Cuisinart, correctly sharpening and using a knife, and cooking over fire. There is something empowering in understanding and appreciating these skills, a usefulness one has once they are acquired. This class aims to instill these basic country cooking skills in our students through a simple seasonal menu that relies heavily on the Salt Water Farm gardens.

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May 30

A Spring Feast

Sold Out

Thursday, May 30, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Spring in Maine is a much awaited season, where tender young greens abound. Chives, lovage and sorrel poke through the chilly earth, asparagus grows an inch a day, dandelions fill the fields and rhubarb stalks are thick and juicy.  It is also a time when lamb, born in the cold winter months, are young and tender and make for an excellent meal.  Celebrate the bounty of spring with us at Salt Water Farm, as we collect ingredients from the gardens and cook an array of beautiful dishes for our afternoon lunch.

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Jun 04

The Art of Hosting Brunch

Tuesday, June 4, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

There is a special art to putting out a beautiful brunch that satisfies a desire for both sweet and savory offerings. An artful beet and carrot salad, a tender green and radish salad with herbed buttermilk dressing, smoked whitefish with capers and creme fraiche, a cast iron frittata with fresh farmers cheese, flaky, buttery biscuits with honey butter, some homemade fennel scented sausage patties, fresh squeezed juice and an excellent pot of coffee should please just about any brunch goer. And to finish, a killer rhubarb and rye cake that will have you swooning. Join us in a late morning brunch preparation and a noon Sunday brunch.

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Jun 06

Catalan Cuisine

Thursday, June 6, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Join us in exploring the rich and diverse culinary traditions of Catalonia, a region of Spain that is home to a wide variety of ingredients from the land and sea. After having lived in the region and worked at a cooking school near Barcelona’s famous Boqueria, (one of best and most diverse open air food markets in the world), I fell in love with so much of what the region has to offer: the wonderful food products such as preserved hams, lemons and olives, the culture of tapas, food festivals and late night meals at cafe tables in historic town squares.

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Jun 11

Middle Eastern Cuisine

Tuesday, June 11, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

There is no question that Middle Eastern cuisine has got people’s attention in this country through food media, new restaurants and cookbooks. I have spent several weeks in the off-season experimenting with recipes from cookbooks such as Jerusalem, The Lebanese Cookbook, A Taste of Persia and Zahav (a wonderful book on Israeli cuisine) and have gradually fallen in love with the nuanced flavors and textures of these cuisines. While food from this part of the world is extremely diverse, I find that most of the recipes are easily replicated in the US, as so many of the ingredients are available to us. In this class, we will make homemade hummus, tabouli, sea salted flatbread, grilled eggplant and zucchini with labneh and sumac, turmeric Israeli cous-cous with currants, grilled lamb with a homemade za’atar and an apricot and cardamom roll, laden with pistachios and finished with rose water.

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Jun 13

Modern Country Cooking

Thursday, June 13, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Modern Country Cooking: It wasn’t until I moved to Maine that I began to truly understand what it means to be a country cook. First, it means growing some, (not necessarily all), of your own food; establishing a deeper connection with the earth and sea that provide us with nutrients. Much of this depends on the seasons and the food that is available. In Maine, much is preserved in the summer and fall to get through the barren months of winter. Second, it means revisiting the basics of food production: making bread, butter, yogurt, stocks, pickles, preserves, pies; cleaning and storing vegetables and herbs from the garden; cleaning mushrooms, filleting fish, butchering poultry; and much more. And then there are what I like to call the country cooking basics: cooking in and caring for cast iron, reaching for a mortar and pestle rather than a Cuisinart, correctly sharpening and using a knife, and cooking over fire. There is something empowering in understanding and appreciating these skills, a usefulness one has once they are acquired. This class aims to instill these basic country cooking skills in our students through a simple seasonal menu that relies heavily on the Salt Water Farm gardens. It also happens to be the name of my next cookbook, which will be released in the spring of 2020.

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Jun 18

The Cuisine of Andalusia, Southern Spain

Tuesday, June 18, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Several years ago, my husband and I (along with our food loving freinds) embarked on a culinary tour of Southern Spain, beginning in Seville and making our way to Cadiz, Marbella and Malaga. We ate all along the Atlantic coast, indulging in an assortment of crispy fried fish squeezed liberally with lemon, tiny artichokes; also fried with lemon, bowls of salmorejo (a cousin of gazpacho), cured local hams all washed down with plenty of sherry. I’ve wanted to recreate these flavors in the Salt Water Farm kitchen for sometime and I’m exited to bring the food of Andalusia to our table. 

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Jun 20

Seafood Cookery

Thursday, June 20, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

In this class, we will discuss the fishing industry along the Maine Coast, the availability of fish varieties native to the area, how to select fish at your local fish store, correct fish handling and shucking methods and various ways to prepare fish at home. Dishes may include raw local oysters with mignonette, buttered toasts with local crab, chive mayonnaise, cucumbers, and tarragon, lobster stew, cast iron halibut steaks with herbed compound butter, radishes, arugula, and peas and lemon curd tart with whipped cream.

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Jun 25

Moroccan Cuisine

Tuesday, June 25, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Through our winter World Cuisine Series on Zoom, we have familiarized the Salt Water Farm kitchen with the rich smells and vibrant colors of Moroccan Cuisine. While this is a country I have yet to visit, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning to use the traditional tagine to steam meats and vegetables, exploring the range of spices included in ras-el-hanout, fluffing the couscous not one, or two, but three times before presenting it and making quick pickles from root vegetables. Cooking Moroccan food ignites the senses and we are thrilled to fold it into our Salt Water Farm repetoire.

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Jun 26

Moroccan Cuisine

Wednesday, June 26, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Through our winter World Cuisine Series on Zoom, we have familiarized the Salt Water Farm kitchen with the rich smells and vibrant colors of Moroccan Cuisine. While this is a country I have yet to visit, I have thoroughly enjoyed learning to use the traditional tagine to steam meats and vegetables, exploring the range of spices included in ras-el-hanout, fluffing the couscous not one, or two, but three times before presenting it and making quick pickles from root vegetables. Cooking Moroccan food ignites the senses and we are thrilled to fold it into our Salt Water Farm repetoire.

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Jun 27

A Feast in Honor of Diana Kennedy

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Thursday, June 27, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

For years, I’ve admired the work of Diana Kennedy, an expert of the regional cuisines of Mexico. She takes an authentic approach to documenting home cooked meals throughout the country and making them accessible to people around the world. The dozens of times that I’ve boarded a flight to Mexico, I’ve carried with me photocopies of Diana’s recipes so that I shop at the local Mexican markets and recreate some of the dishes from her many books over a Mexican stovetop. Nothing gave me greater joy. I’m thrilled to add this class to our schedule and hope to celebrate her work for many years to come in the Salt Water Farm kitchen. We will make a number of traditional dishes including: Homemade Tortillas, Enchiladas de Plaza, Pescado a la Veracruzana, Arroz a la Mexicana, Frijoles de Olla, and Torta de Cielo. 

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Jul 09

A Feast in Honor of Julia Child

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Tuesday, July 9, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

What better way to celebrate the grand dame of French food in America than cooking our way through a multi-course meal, with Julia Child’s tips and techniques to guide us. Julia offered a window into French cuisine at a time, when grocery stores in America were full of processed food and factory farmed protein.  She opened our eyes to a different way of cooking and eating, one that honored classic French cooking and the pleasure that comes from time spent in the kitchen.  And she had us laughing out loud while we learned from her.  In this class, we will make some of her favorite dishes: gougeres, potato and leek soup,  salad nicoise, lemony chicken fricassé with shallots and morels and chocolate soufflé.

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Jul 11

The Art of Bouillabaisse

Thursday, July 11, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

In this course we will discuss how to source fresh, sustainable fish and various ways of cooking it. This class showcases the abundance of fish that we have in the Penobscot Bay, featuring a New England style bouillabaisse, brimming with clams, mussels, squid and halibut and topped with a rouille smothered toast to deeply flavor the broth. When students ask me what my favorite dish to make is, the bouillabaisse is it. In part because it brings me back to time spent in Southern France on the Mediterranean and in part because it’s such an exemplary offering of Main’s fish harvest.

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Jul 13

An Iranian Summer Feast Lunch

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Saturday, July 13, 2024
12:00pm - 2:00pm

$125/per person

Join us for a special Iranian Summer Feast with guest chef Louisa Shafia, author of The New Persian Kitchen cookbook. We are delighted to host Louisa in the Salt Water Farm kitchen for this special event. Her recipes have been featured everywhere from Food & Wine to the NYT and she sells Persian culinary goods at feastbylouisa.com. This will be a meal to remember. We only have 20 seats, so don’t wait to book your tickets. 

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Jul 16

Persian Cooking

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Tuesday, July 16, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Sometimes, the gift of a cookbook can guide you down an unfamiliar path that peaks your curiosity in a subject. A dear friend gifted me “Sofreh: A Contemporary Approach to Classic Persian Cuisine” by Nasir Alikhani. I found myself entranced by Persian cuisine; its fascinating history and reach across so many countries and culinary traditions. My eyes were drown it’s many it’s brilliant and heavy use of Sabzi – green herbs such as mint, tarragon, cilantro and basil. My stomach drawn to its purees of eggplant and spinach borani, laced with thick yogurt and crispy garlic. My nose tempted by the smells of saffron water and mint oil. Ground spices such as cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and cumin find a welcome home in savory meat dishes. Even fruit such as apricots, limes and pomegranates have a place in Persian stews, delighted and surprising the palate. And the crown jewel of the table is a golden tahdig, warm like the sun and crispy if done just right.

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Jul 18

The Cuisine of Provence, France

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Thursday, July 18, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

My first adventure abroad as a culinary student was to a little town called Aix-en-Provence, where I was completely overwhelmed by the abundance of the open-air markets, fragrant with olives, lavender and cheeses from the region.  Stands were flush with piles of vegetables from the neighboring hills, game birds hung decorated with all their plume and baskets of nuts, spices, pastries and breads that were neatly laid out for town.  On occasion, we would travel to the coast to enjoy bowls of saffron scented fish stew and walk along the fishing docks.  To embrace the culinary traditions of the South, we will enjoy dishes such as tomato toasts with chèvre and tapenade, Penobscot Bay bouillabaisse, a simple salad of garden lettuce and herbs with red wine vinaigrette, ratatouille, roast lamb with lavender and rosemary and pistachio cake.

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Jul 23

Cooking with Herbs and Edible Flowers

Tuesday, July 23, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Cooking with herbs and edible flowers adds a whole other dimension to making a meal, particularly in the summertime. It adds not only color but delicate flavors that can truly bring a dish to life. In this class, we will walk around the Salt Water Farm gardens and gather baskets full of flowers and herbs. Then, we’ll use our harvest to create a beautiful lunch to share around our farm table. Dishes will include an herbal tisane, fried squash blossoms, nasturtium pesto with a rosemary and thyme focaccia, an herbed frittata with local goat cheese, a cherry tomato and green filet bean salad with a soft herb vinaigrette and flower petals and a summer berry fool with lavender cream.

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Jul 25

Cobblers, Buckles and Galettes

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Thursday, July 25, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Maine has a long tradition of pie making and out of it have come several variations with names like slumps, grunts, buckles, cobblers and crisps. What they all share in common is fruit and some sort of pastry dough, whether in the form of a pie crust, a biscuit or a cake. This class celebrates the precious berry season in Maine by walking students through four heavenly recipes that will win the affections of any crowd. Dishes may include a blueberry buckle, raspberry cobbler, blueberry galette and nectarine slump. Plus a killer pie crust recipe. And don’t worry, we will make a delicious, vegetable driven savory lunch to hold us over while our desserts are in the oven.

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Jul 30

Mexican Regional Cuisine

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Tuesday, July 30, 2024 - Thursday, August 1, 2024

$750/per person

Each winter, I head South with my family to Mexico, a country that has held a special place in my heart since I was a child. My parents lived in Mexico City before I was born and their tales of delicious street tamales, long, fancy brunches and parties that lasted well past midnight peaked my interest. My father and I would spend the better part of a weekend making mole on our suburban stovetop as he would tell me tales of living in Mexico. As an adult and a cook, Mexico holds even greater intrigue. My husband and I (and now our daughter) have explored the Yucatan Peninsula, the state of Oaxaca and Chiapas and found a second home in Mexico City, where I now lead workshops in the winter months. True Mexican food is as good as eating gets, with sour, spicy and and earthy notes that make the palate yearn for more. In this three day workshop, you will be introduced to three different regional cuisines of Mexico and my hope is that you will fall in love with the culinary landscape of country that I hold so dear.

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Aug 06

Italian Regional Cuisine

Tuesday, August 6, 2024 - Thursday, August 8, 2024

$750/per person

Influenced by its Northern neighbors, mountain ranges and cooler climates, these regions of Italy are known for egg-based pastas, dairy-rich dishes, polenta, hard cheeses, dried pork products such as prosciutto, beans and bread.  In this class we will make pasta from scratch, traditional pesto and a wonderful, once-baked biscotti.  Our meal will be comprised of bagna cauda with sliced raw vegetables from the garden, bitter greens salad with beets, pecorino and orange vinaigrette, Genovese linguine with green beans, new potatoes and pesto, a white bean in herbed tomato sauce with fresh sausages, and almond biscotti.

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Aug 20

A Feast in Honor of Marcella Hazan

Tuesday, August 20, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

While in culinary school, I was asked to write an essay about the person I was most inspired by and that was Marcella Hazan, the famous Italian home cook, who shared traditional Italian recipes with the world through classes and cookbooks. In this class, we will recreate some of Marcella’s tried and true Italian recipes and feast in her honor.  Dishes may include bagna cauda, hand-made “ugly”pasta in the style of Genoa, pollo alla cacciatora (Hunter’s Wife’s Chicken), radicchio salad with green olives and Parmesan Reggiano, zucchini gratin with tomato and oregano and a nectarine tart with mascarpone cream.

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Aug 22

Leaning Less on Grains

Thursday, August 22, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

As we get older, our dietary needs change. There is an overwhelming instinct for many of us to reach for carbohydrates when we are hungry, particularly at dinner. They are easy to cook, usually satisfy everyone at the table and are filling. The problem is that after a certain age, our bodies are reluctant to digest them with ease. As an experiment, my husband and did not eat grains (yes this includes alcohol) for 30 days in the month of January. What I found was that we both lost weight, were more clear-headed and had a much easier time digesting foods. (Sorry if that’s too much information for some of you.) What I also found were a host of wonderful and delicious meals, high in protein and vegetables, that didn’t make us miss eating grains at all. While I can’t promise I’ll never have another piece of pizza or a hamburger with a bun, I can say that from now on, when we make dinner at home, carbohydrates will never be the centerpiece of our meal. The takeaway from this class are several wonderful dishes that can help you lean less on grains.

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Aug 27

Saucing and Spicing Up Seasonal Vegetables

Tuesday, August 27, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

A friend once told me that if she’s unfamiliar with a particular spice or mix of spices, she cuts up a tray of seasonal vegetables and tosses them in olive oil, salt and a generous sprinkling of the and new and unfamiliar flavor. This helps her to determine whether she should incorporate the new spice into her regular cooking repertoire. The only way to gain an appreciation for new flavors is to try them! And the necessity for complementary sauces can not be understated. In this class, we will cook up a number of seasonal vegetables and experiment with exciting new spices and herbs. We will also make three versatile sauces that add layers of flavor to simple vegetarian preparations.

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Aug 29

Honoring Edna Lewis: American Southern Cuisine

Thursday, August 29, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

We rarely think of leaders in regional American cuisine, but without question, the leader of Southern food is Edna Lewis.  Through her extensive appreciation of ingredients native to the South, her time spent growing up in farmer’s fields, rivers and barnyards full of livestock, Edna was connected to the land in way that so few Americans still are.  According to Edna, the beauty of food was in its simplicity and the rare moments when something is at its peak and freshly harvested.  She also had a style of cookbook writing that would keep any reader’s attention, a quick wit and the ability to cut right to the chase.  In this class, we will create a meal in her honor, made up of sweet tea with aronia syrup, green bean salad with summer tomatoes, slow cooked skillet onions, spoon bread with fresh butter, pan fried chicken with creamy gravy and and peach cobbler.

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Sep 03

Modern Country Cooking

Tuesday, September 3, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Modern Country Cooking: It wasn’t until I moved to Maine that I began to truly understand what it means to be a country cook. First, it means growing some, (not necessarily all), of your own food; establishing a deeper connection with the earth and sea that provide us with nutrients. Much of this depends on the seasons and the food that is available. In Maine, much is preserved in the summer and fall to get through the barren months of winter. Second, it means revisiting the basics of food production: making bread, butter, yogurt, stocks, pickles, preserves, pies; cleaning and storing vegetables and herbs from the garden; cleaning mushrooms, filleting fish, butchering poultry; and much more. And then there are what I like to call the country cooking basics: cooking in and caring for cast iron, reaching for a mortar and pestle rather than a Cuisinart, correctly sharpening and using a knife, and cooking over fire. There is something empowering in understanding and appreciating these skills, a usefulness one has once they are acquired. This class aims to instill these basic country cooking skills in our students through a simple seasonal menu that relies heavily on the Salt Water Farm gardens. 

Full Details
Sep 05

The Cuisine of Sicily

Sold Out

Thursday, September 5, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

On a recent trip to Sicily, the locals made it perfectly clear, that soccer aside “they are Sicilians, not Italians.”  Sicily is a wonderfully diverse island and depending on which shore you are on, the food is influenced by the nearest country: the East is influenced by Southern Italy and Greece, the South and West by Spain and Africa and the North by France and Corsica.  This makes for a colorful journey around the island and a number of opinions on what is Sicilian food.  In this class, we will feast on dishes from all shores: chickpea fritters, eggplant caponata on toasts, salad of oranges, black cured olives and arugula and Sicilian seafood stew with almonds and couscous, and zeppole (Italian doughnuts) with zabaglione.

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Sep 10

French Regional Cuisine

Tuesday, September 10, 2024 - Thursday, September 12, 2024

$750/per person

The Northern regions of France are heavily influenced by the bordering countries to the East (Belgium, Switzerland and Germany) and the Atlantic coastline.  Alsace Lorraine and Normandy are famous for their rich cuisine, with dishes that are cream laden, and often include cabbage, potatoes and other root vegetables, alliums such as onions and leeks, pork and a variety of hard, cow’s milk cheeses.  Eggs are also a culinary staple of the North, where quiche lorraine was born.  Bretagne is know for it’s variety of seafood, particularly shellfish, which live along the rocky shores of the region.

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Sep 17

Planning Ahead: Dishes that can be made well before mealtime

Tuesday, September 17, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

So many of our students have expressed an interest in learning more recipes that can be done well ahead of time, so that they can sit down with their dinner guests and enjoy the fruits of their labor. We often find ourselves shuffling dishes in and out of a hot oven, trying to get the timing just right, which can be exhausting. At Salt Water Farm, we take a different approach. We select menu items that benefit from being made ahead of time and can be served effortlessly whenever you are ready for them. In this class, we will talk about menu design, serving temperature, food presentation, plated meals vs. family style and other simple tricks to hosting a low-maintenance, yet impressive meal.

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Sep 26

Modern Country Cooking

Thursday, September 26, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Modern Country Cooking: It wasn’t until I moved to Maine that I began to truly understand what it means to be a country cook. First, it means growing some, (not necessarily all), of your own food; establishing a deeper connection with the earth and sea that provide us with nutrients. Much of this depends on the seasons and the food that is available. In Maine, much is preserved in the summer and fall to get through the barren months of winter. Second, it means revisiting the basics of food production: making bread, butter, yogurt, stocks, pickles, preserves, pies; cleaning and storing vegetables and herbs from the garden; cleaning mushrooms, filleting fish, butchering poultry; and much more. And then there are what I like to call the country cooking basics: cooking in and caring for cast iron, reaching for a mortar and pestle rather than a Cuisinart, correctly sharpening and using a knife, and cooking over fire. There is something empowering in understanding and appreciating these skills, a usefulness one has once they are acquired. This class aims to instill these basic country cooking skills in our students through a simple seasonal menu that relies heavily on the Salt Water Farm gardens. It also happens to be the name of my next cookbook, which will be released in the spring of 2020.

Full Details
Oct 03

The Cuisine of Normandy, France

Thursday, October 3, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

The Northern regions of France are heavily influenced by the bordering countries to the East (Belgium, Switzerland and Germany) and the Atlantic coastline.  Alsace Lorraine and Normandy are famous for their rich cuisine, with dishes that are cream laden, and often include cabbage, potatoes and other root vegetables, alliums such as onions and leeks, pork and a variety of hard, cow’s milk cheeses.  Eggs are also a culinary staple of the North, where quiche lorraine was born.  Bretagne is know for it’s variety of seafood, particularly shellfish, which live along the rocky shores of the region.  Dishes in this class may include bacon and onion tart with gruyere and foraged mushrooms, Maine mussels with tarragon, brandy and cream, farmhouse chicken in cider vinegar with heirloom potatoes pomme anna, kohlrabi and apple salad and an apple cake with fresh cream and maple syrup.

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Oct 08

Three Autumn Soups

Tuesday, October 8, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

When people ask what my favorite food is, the answer is always the same: soup. A soup is nothing short of medicine on a cold day. It warms us from head to toe, shutting out the cold. A rich broth made from a good stock is the most important ingredient of any soup. In this class, we will learn how to make homemade stock, develop a deep flavor in the base of any soup, season correctly and garnish beautifully. We will also make three soups that will have you cooking all winter long. Recipes may include pureed buttercup squash soup with fried sage and sautéed mushrooms, a chicken guisado with lime and capers and a smoked and fresh haddock chowder. We will also make an autumn greens salad with roast squash, apples from the orchard and hazelnuts as well as a chocolate almond brandy cake.

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Oct 10

Braising on the Bone

Thursday, October 10, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Braising is a tried and true method of developing flavor over time. The smell of browning the meat, introducing the vegetables and then filling the pot with hot stock and letting it simmer for hours is an indication in the Salt Water Farm kitchen that winter is soon upon us. In this class we will cook three different kinds of meat on the bone, demonstrating that the bone gives the meat tenderness and flavor. Dishes include coq au vin, a traditional Cassoulet with duck, sausages and white beans and a mouthwatering osso bucco on a bed of soft polenta. We will also make a bitter green and citrus salad and a chocolate almond brandy cake for dessert.

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Oct 15

Cooking Over Fire

Sold Out

Tuesday, October 15, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Before the age of gas stovetops and convection ovens, many people used fire as their heat source for cooking. Many argue that everything tastes better when cooked over an open flame. In this class, we will review how to operate a wood burning oven, what kinds of wood to use and the multitude of cooking methods that lend themselves to an open fire.  We will create an entire menu made in our wood burning oven including Provoleta with Fire Grilled Flatbread, Roast Squash with Greens and Toasted Hazelnuts, Roast Potatoes with Tapenade, Grilled Beef with Chimichurri, Grilled Vegetables with Romesco, Seared Oranges with Rosemary Yogurt. 

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Oct 17

Savory Pies

Thursday, October 17, 2024
10:00am - 2:00pm

$250/per person

Historically, savory pies were a method of preserving foods for long journeys across land or sea. The English are famous for their meat pies and America has its own tradition in chicken pot pie. In this class we will explore how to make a savory crust, how to lay it across the pie and finish it, how to develop flavor in the pie’s contents and how to present a savory pie at either a dinner party or at home on a cold night. Dishes include Classic Chicken Pot Pie, Smoked Haddock Pie and Foraged Mushroom, Greens and Gruyere Tart. We will also make a delicious autumn salad with roast squash, apples from the orchard and hazelnuts and a chocolate almond brandy cake for dessert.

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